Highlights from Apple's Q2 2017 investors call

Apple held its quarterly earnings call today where Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri spoke with analysts about the second quarter of 2017. You can read our full transcript if you want to see everything they had to say, or check out our highlights below!

Apple overall

  • Apple sold 50.76 million iPhones, 8.9 million iPads, and 4.2 million Macs. The quarterly revenue was up 10% over last year at $52.9 billion.
  • Apple now has 495 retail locations in 18 countries worldwide and revenue was up 27% year-over-year.
  • Apple will be increasing its Capital Return Program size by $50 billion, bringing the total to $300 billion.
  • WWDC is "significantly oversubscribed" and expected to have thousands of attendees. Cook noted that WWDC will cover macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
  • In 2016, 96% of Apple's electricity usage came from renewable sources.
  • Apple Park will house 13 thousand employees under one roof. Apple also provides more than two million jobs in the U.S. with American suppliers.
  • When asked about Apple's decision to withhold royalty payments to Qualcomm, Cook commented, "You can't pay something when you don't know what you have to pay. They think we owe one amount, we think we owe a different amount. We need the courts to decide that. Qualcomm is charging Apple a percentage of the total iPhone. They do some great work around standards essentials patents, but that's a very small part of what iPhone is. We don't think that's right. We are taking a principled stand on it."

The Capital Return Program

  • Apple returned $10 billion to investors and paid $3 billion in dividends and equivalents.
  • Apple paid out $12 billion in annual dividends, which is one of the largest payouts in the world.
  • The program will be extended to March of 2019.
  • Apple allocating the majority of the program expansion to shareholders. Raising dividends for the fifth time in less than five years.

Services

  • Services generated $7 billion in revenue, up 18% year-over-year.
  • The number of app developers has increased by 26% in the March quarter.
  • Paid subscriptions for all services exceed $165 million, up $15 million from last quarter. Maestri noted that, when people starts buying on the App Store, they end up spending more over time as they get more comfortable
  • Apple Pay transactions have increased by 450%. In Japan, more than 500 thousand transit users use Apple Pay to pay for their fares.
  • During the Super Bowl at one point, people sent 183 thousand iMessages per second.

iPhone

  • iPhone sales were in line with expectations and still see a large demand.
  • Sales topped $7 billion.
  • The iPhone grew by double-digits year over year.
  • Regarding the supply constraints on the iPhone 7, Cook said, "We did not get right, the mix of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Demand was much stronger to the iPhone 7 Plus than we expected. It took us longer to adjust through the supply chain. What did we learn from it? We're brushing up our models and will apply everything we learned to the next time."

iPad

  • Though sales have tapered off, the iPad still remains the worlds most popular tablet.
  • Apple sold 8.9 million iPads, which is 81% of the U.S. market for tablets over $200.
  • The satisfaction ratings for the iPad remains at 95 - 100%.

The Mac

  • Mac sales generated $25 billion in revenue over the past four quarters.
  • Mac revenue was up 20% in the March quarter in China.
  • Revenue of Mac sales is up 14% over the previous quarter which is a new March record.
  • Apple sold 14.2 million Macs, which is a growth of 10% in the portables market.
  • Cook commented that Apple is "Investing heavily in the Mac's future."

Wearables

  • Apple Watch sales have doubled year-over-year and sales have more than doubled in more than six of the top 10 markets.
  • AirPods have a 98% satisfaction rating.
  • Revenue for wearables over the past four quarters was the size of a Fortune 500 company. Cook said, "As I see it, that's pretty fast to come this far. The Watch hasn't been out very out very long and AirPods have only been out for three or four months."

Want more details on Apples Q1 2017 earnings call? Go read our transcript!

Lory Gil

Lory is a renaissance woman, writing news, reviews, and how-to guides for iMore. She also fancies herself a bit of a rock star in her town and spends too much time reading comic books.  If she's not typing away at her keyboard, you can probably find her at Disneyland or watching Star Wars (or both).